The Riders

This isn’t my first foray into Winton, I’m a fan of some of his short stories, and really loved the strangeness of Cloudstreet. There were these gorgeous chapters from the perspective of a boy with a mental disability.

The Riders is much more mainstream – and probably the most commercial and well-known of his works. Fred Scully is fixing up an old place in the Irish countryside, awaiting the arrival of his wife Jennifer and daughter Billie who are selling their house in Fremantle. They have been travelling around Europe for years – Greece, London, Paris… Scully is looking forward to settling down, but when he goes to the airport to pick up his family… Billie emerges from the plane alone. She is clearly traumatised, and takes days to speak to Scully, who is frantically trying to figure out what happened to his wife.

What follows is an Odyssey throughout Europe, with Scully trying to re-visit the towns of his past – not only to look for physical signs of Jennifer, but also metaphorically to re-visit those places for clues as to what lead her to leave him.

It is frantically paced, and includes interesting characters. Scully, described as a man who looks like a serial killer, is surprisingly gentle. He has been the main caregiver to Billie for years and is a man who can do “womanly things” such as cooking, cleaning etc. Yet he drags poor Billie around, obsessed with finding his wife. Ironically it is Billie who understands Jennifer more, and who longs for Scully to give up his search and accept that nothing will be the same again. The roles are gradually reversed as Scully’s desperation leads him to drink, and Billie is left picking up the pieces.

It is the emphasis and greater understanding of their love that pulls the novel together. I didn’t find it as riveting as the quotes on the front cover, it was interesting and a worthwhile read.

Blueprints for a Barbed-Wire Canoe

Sorry it has been a while between postings again.

I have been doing that things where I read more than one book at a time. That's what happens when you need to read for work as well as for pleasure. But, I have finally finished one of them! It was a re-read actually rather than a read.

Blueprints for a Barbed-Wire Canoe is an odd little book and beautifully quirky. It borders on the ridiculous at times, and yet the characters motives never lose their believability. Quite a fine balance really!

The author is Wayne Macauley, an acclaimed Australian short story writer. The title relates to the old saying - "Up shit creek in a barbed-wire canoe without a paddle" (although I must say I have never heard of the barbed-wire canoe bit before). And in fact, the barbed-wire canoe, a symbol of hopelessness and doom (because how far can you really get in it?) becomes the symbol for the entire story.

In a way that only an Australian can, Macauley writes about the suburban dream of housing estates, and sets his story in a satellite estate - one that has been built far out from the urban fringe, but lies waiting for buyers and the long-promised freeway (which sort of gains mythical status throughout the book) to catch up to it. Like the canoe, the little community is doomed before it even begins, by bad planning and shoddy workmanship.

Yet despite this (or perhaps because of it), Macauley painstakingly shows us the development of a society in the estate that becomes known (by letters falling off a sign) as ur - a clear parrallel to the doomed Sumerian city of the same name. The core characters stubbornly do not leave the development, despite the lack of plumbing, electricity, and eventually income that they are subject. Instead, they band together and survive using each of their unique skills.

At what point they story may verge on the ridiculous will change with every reader. Some will say it is the building of the wall around the estate (do I hear East Germany anyone?), while others will vote for the senseless deaths or the sheer lunacy of Michael's attempts to draw attention to their plight at the end.

Bram, our narrator (and now think biblical reference) tells the story if the demise of the estate and all of their dreams after the event. But how reliable is he? His is a love story, and yet the object of his affection is strangely silent and absent. I would love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this.

It's a really original read - which makes it great. Certainly it's not for everyone - but no good book is. Trying hard to please everyone just makes for a bland read.

The Secret River

William Thornhill is a convict travelling to Australia with his family. Although they originally dream of returning to England, Will becomes increasingly seduced by the wild seemingly uninhabited Australian landscape. The idea of actually "owning" so much land is so tempting, that he moves his family out into the dark wilderness...

Although there is a lot of controversy regarding whether or not this form of historical fiction is appropriate (see below), this is a very readable and enjoyable read - especially given that it was something that I had to read for work.

The story begins in a "warm and fuzzy" way - Thornhill is a likeable character and the story of his poverty in England and escape from the hangman's noose is genuinely engaging. We begin to see changes upon his arrival in Australia where the "white man's lust for land and power" becomes evident. Thornhill is inspired by a piece of land "the shape of a man's thumb", and endangers his family by taking them to such a remote location - even though he knows that he wife Sal (who is the centre of his world for the first half of the novel) wants nothing more than to return home.

This is where the story begins to change, and we begin to see how a man as likeable as Thornhill could be responsible for the atrocities that occurred to the Aboriginals upon white settlement. I don't want to spoil the ending for you, but we certainly get a look into the heart of darkness and avarice.

This is a book with a political conscience - it is "researched", not based on fact. Grenville's ancestor's inspire many of the characters of the novel, but it is pure inspiration. Not history. Although one could argue that this is the true essence of historical fiction - you can only guarantee it's accuracy to a certain extent, especially when we start to interpret characters.

Definitely worth a read - and I don't say that often about Australian Literature.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/bwriting/stories/s1414510.htm

http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/2006/10/the_secret_rive.html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/reviews/the-secret-river/2005/07/08/1120704543439.html